Academic Word List [AWL] – Word Formation
What is Academic Word List word forms?
The Academic Word List (AWL) is a word list of 570 English words which appear with great frequency in a broad range of academic texts. This lesson helps students to develop an awareness of the 3,000 different word forms of the 570 words.
Lesson Plan
Aim: to develop the students’ awareness and lexical repertoire of the Academic Word List. The lesson is a great way to help students improve their understanding of the Academic Word List, word formation and use in contextualised sentences. This lesson is designed as a homework activity for students to research words using online dictionaries.
1. Preparation
- Photocopy the one Academic Word Form Sheet with the Contextualised Sentences Activity on the back of the sheet. (Generally do one word formation activity a week).
- Photocopy a copy of the AWL: https://academic-englishuk.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/AWL-copy.pdf
- Disclaimer: only the most frequent words in the sublists are used in the word forms and not every form is shown.
2. Set up
- Give out and explain the rationale behind the Academic Word list sheet (if necessary). The Academic Word List (AWL) contains 570 word families which were selected because they appear with great frequency in a broad range of academic texts. The list helps identify academic vocabulary and formality.
- Give an example of word formation ‘analyse’ – ask the students to write down the other forms of this word.
3. Academic Word Forms Sheet
- Show the students possible online dictionaries to use to help find the answers.
- Longman Dictionary: https://www.ldoceonline.com/
- Cambridge Dictionary: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/
4. Contextualised Sentence Sheet
- Only use the words from Academic Word Forms sheet.
- Only use the same word once.
- Disclaimer: there are many possible answers for this activity.
5. Feedback
- Give out / email Academic Word Forms sheet with answers.
- Go through the Contextualised Sentences Sheet as a class to check the variety of possible answers.
6. Production Activity
- Use the AWL Kinaesthetic Lesson (cut up words) to consolidate understanding (see below this lesson).
- https://academic-englishuk.com/vocabulary
Academic Word Formation: Sublist 1- 4 (updated 2020*)
This lesson is a word formation activity. Each table contains approximately 20 verbs and students need to add the corresponding nouns and adjectives. This then follows with a contextualised sentence gap fill using these words and a kinaesthetic activity. Good motivating activity encouraging students to use online dictionaries and help develop academic vocabulary. Time: 30mins Example Level ***** [B1/B2/C1] TEACHER MEMBERSHIP / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP
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Academic Word List – Kinaesthetic Lesson (cut up words)
Academic Word List Lesson: Sublist 1-10
This lesson includes the 10 sublists of the Academic Word List put into tables to be cut up and used as a teaching tool. Give out one set of words to a group of 3/4 students and they take it in turns to explain their word using synonyms, explanation and definition. There are lots of other activities included too. Level ***** [B1/B2] TEACHER MEMBERSHIP / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP
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Academic Word List Exercise x4
Four Academic Word List gap fill exercises. Great way to improve awareness of academic words and word formation Example. Level ***** [B1/B2/C1] TEACHER MEMBERSHIP / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP
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Academic Word List Games (four-in-a-row)
AWL Verbs to Nouns
Academic Word game: verbs to nouns
100 high frequency words taken from the Academic Word List and put into grid. In groups of four, students guess the noun for each verb. The objective is to get as many four-in-in row as possible. This is a fun lesson to improve awareness of academic words and formality. Example. [webpage]. Level ***** [B1/B2/C1] TEACHER MEMBERSHIP / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP
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AWL Nouns to Adjectives
Academic Word game: nouns to adjectives
100 high frequency words taken from the Academic Word List and put into grid. In groups of four, students guess the adjective for each noun. The objective is to get as many four-in-in row as possible. This is a fun lesson to improve awareness of academic words and formality. Example. [webpage]. Difficult Level ***** [B2/C1] TEACHER MEMBERSHIP / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP
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AWL Word + Preposition
Academic Word game: word + preposition
100 high frequency words taken from the Academic Word List and put into grid. In groups of four, students guess the corresponding preposition for each word. The objective is to get as many four-in-in row as possible. This is a fun lesson to improve awareness of academic words and formality. Example. [webpage]. Level ***** [B1/B2/C1] TEACHER MEMBERSHIP / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP
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AWL Word Forms (nouns / verbs / adjectives)
Academic Word game: word forms [n/v/adj]
100 high frequency words taken from the Academic Word List and put into grid. In groups of four, students guess the correct form (each word in the grid has an acronym of the word to be guessed). The objective is to get as many four-in-in row as possible. This is a fun lesson to improve awareness of academic words and formality. Example. [webpage]. Level ***** [B1/B2/C1] TEACHER MEMBERSHIP / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP
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